Today I’m sharing my process on photographing and editing my chamomile tea images. I’ll explain the setup, the shoot, and the edit in Lightroom.

I adore chamomile. As I drive along I’m always scanning ditches, and right now this exuberant little flower nods, and waves, and beckons me.

I will acknowledge some people regard it as a (noxious) weed, but I regard it as a wildflower full of possibilities … photography, a bouquet, tea … certainly something to be celebrated.

I do not make my own chamomile tea (I leave that to the experts) but it is probably my favourite tea. It warms, it soothes, and it calms. Apparently it has medicinal properties and any Google search will attest to that. But today I simply want to explain my photography process.

I set a cup of tea on top of the green door which I dragged home a few weeks ago. I chose the green door since I thought the white flowers needed contrast. I then painstakingly lovingly, clipped the flowers off the stems and arranged them closely, leaving one on a stem so I could prop it in the teacup.

In the following images, the one flower is my focal point. I used f5.6 to blur the background, but not too much.

Camera Settings:

• Nikon D7100
• Nikon 40mm lens
• 1/125s f5.6 ISO 160
• No flash

I was thrilled to have this image featured by @poppytalk (IG) and on their blog Poppytalk: Tuesdays Summer Colours

Since my photos were a bit overexposed in camera, when I imported into Lightroom, I did not apply an Auto Tone. I wanted complete control to tone manually, and on an individual basis.

After cropping and straightening, I applied Kim’s kk_Hazed Lightroom preset … and kaboom! magic!! Dreaminess with a click of a mouse … the one thing I loved most was the softening haze it put over the tea …

After that I simply grabbed the Adjustment Brush and brushed over the prominent flower, bringing back some sharpness.

Then I decided to experiment just a little … I wanted the images to be “less green”.

To do this, I clicked on Color in the HSL/Color/B&W tab in the Develop Module, chose Green and moved the slider to the left to desaturate … what do you think?

Do you prefer more green, or less green?

I’m undecided … I’ve printed one copy of each and am still debating … I’ll let you know …

Thank you for stopping by today!